Fabric and its manufacture



Sept. 5, 1939. H. DREYFUS Er AL. 2,171,626

FABRIC AND ITS MANUFACTURE Filed Aug. 12, 193e onl extension yar/7 FEI-"gi HENRY ADmwfus WILLIAM A. DICKIE /NvE/voRs Patented Sept. 5, 1939 PATENT OFFICE FABRIC AND ITS MANUFACTURE Henry Dreyfus, London, and William Alexander Dickie, Spondon, lnear Derby, England, assignors to Celanese Corporation of America, a corporation of.' Delaware Application August 12, 1936, Serial No. 95,710 In Great Britain September 4, 1935 8 Claims.

'I'his invention relates to textile fabrics and the manufacture thereof, having particular reference to fabrics exhibiting relief or figured effects.

According to the invention, artificial yarns of i high extensibility are introduced intofabrics along with yarn (artificial or otherwise) of lower, e.- g., normal extensibility and the fabrics are subjected Vto dyeing, finishingand other operations adapted to cause the yarns of higher extensibllity to become elongated, so that the areas containing these yarns become puckered or cockled to give a relief effect to the fabrics.

The extensibility of the yarns of high extensibility should be of the order of 30, 35 or 40% or more. For example, this property may be imparted to the yarns by subjecting them' to a shrinking treatment; or again, the spinning of the yarn may be so carried out that high exten-- sibility results.

:0 Thus, cellulose acetate or other cellulose derivative yarn may be subjected to a treatment with organic solvents, latent solvents, or swelling agents as described in United States Patent No. 2,058,422, or with vapours of such solvents or 5 swelling agents. Examples of suitable liquids are acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, dioxane, methylene ethylene ether, formic acid, acetic acid, methyl or ethyl alcohol, methyl acetate, methyl or ethyl formate, and dichlorethylene, methylene chloride,

i0 ethylene chloride. chloroform and ethyl acetate, as set out in the specification above referred to.

Further, in the dry-spinning of cellulose acetate or other cellulose derivative yarn, adjustment of the spinning conditions provides for a control 35 over extensibility, high spinning solution temperature, low spinning speed, and little or no draw down (or even such a feed rate that shrinkage of the filaments takes place during setting) giving higher extensibility, especially 1,0 when coupled with the spinning of coarse filaments, e. g., of 5,` 6 or 7 denier upwards. Low concentration of the spinning solution also assists in increasing extensibility.

Upon subjection to dyeing, finishing, and like aqueous treatments, particularly hot treatments, yarns such as indicated above have a final length in the finished fabrics greater than the other yarns of normal or lreduced extensibility and this difference in length provokes a puckering of 50 the fabric surface whichmay be used to give a variety of ornamental effects, which are illustrated by the accompanying drawing in which Figs. l and 2 show stripe and check effects, and Figs. 3 and 4 cloqu and matelass effects. 55 Thus, if the high-extensibility yarn is intro- (Cl. Z8-1) duced in stripes in alternation with yarn of lower extensibility, as shown in Fig. 1, the stripes of the high-extensibility yarn become puckered transversely to the plane of the stripes in the finishing of the fabric, giving the fabric a seersucker finish. In woven fabrics, such stripe effects may be introduced into the warp or the weft, or, to produce check effects, in both warp and weft, as shown in Fig. 2. The stripes may be regular or irregular in width and spacing, and the high-extensibility yarn may preponderate or not, according as the puckering is to appear on a major portion of the fabric surface or only on a minor portion. In producing a figured effect, the use of highextensibility yarn with yarn of lower extensibility has a certain similarity to the use of crpe and non-crping yarn in a fabric to produce figured effects, with, however, the important advantage that the finished fabric is free from the 'harshness that frequently accompanies the use of crpe yarns.

Forinstance, as shown in Fig. 3, cloqu effects may be produced by allowing the normal yarns to fioat in parts of the fabric, which at such parts has a relief effect on its surface due to the presence of the high-extensibility yarn; in the other Yparts of the fabric both yarns appear on the surface. In the case of matelass effects, as shown in Fig. 4, the normal yarns and the other yarns form a pattern consisting of what are really two fabric structures, one fabric consisting of one yarn appearing on the surface at one partl of the pattern and the other fabric appearing in relief at another part of the pattern.

The invention may also be applied to satinsurfaced fabrics, in which the yarns of differing extensibility, though not appearing themselves on the surface of the fabrics, impart a relief effect.

The normal yarn may consist of the same or different type of artificial filaments, andmay be either the same in lustre, colour, or other characteristics, apart from extensibility, or may differ in order to add a further contrast to that obtained by the relief effect. The yarn of low extensibility may, however, be natural yarn, such as cotton, silk, or wool, which may be the same in colour as the other yarn or of different colour; or use may be made of yarns having different dyeing properties from the high-extensibility yarns so as to obtain cross-dyed effects.

'Ihe yarn of high extensibility may be used as continuous-filament yarn or lmay be made of or contain staple fibre.

When the yarns of high extensibility are introduced into the warp of a fabric, it is advisable to wind them and the yarns of lower extensibility on the same beam, so as to avoid the risk of unduly stretching them and thereby reducing the desired effect.

Having described our invention what we desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. Method of producing fabric having ornamental eects, which comprises introducing into a closely woven fabric unshrunk cellulose derivative yarns which extend in length by at least 30% when subjected to a finishing treatment in an aqueous mdium, along with yarns which extend to a lesser degree when subjected vto such finishing treatment, and subjecting said fabric to a finishing operation in an aqueous medium by which the extensible yarns are elongated.

2. Method of producing fabric having ornamental eifects, which comprises introducing into a closely woven fabric unshrunk organic derivative of cellulose yarns.` which extend in length by at least 30% when subjected to a finishing treatment in an aqueous medium, along with yarns which extend to a lesser degree when subjected to such finishing treatment, and subjecting said fabric to a finishing operation in an aqueous medium by which the extensible yarns are elongated,

3. Method of producing fabric having ornamental eifects, which comprises introducing into a closely woven fabric unshrunk cellulose acetate yarns which extend in length by at least 30% when subjected to a finishing treatment in van aqueous medium, along with yarns which extend to a lesser degree when subjected to'such finishing treatment, and subjecting said fabric to a finishing operation in an aqueous medium by which the extensible yarns are elongated.

4. Method of producing fabric having ornamental effects, which comprises introducing into a closely woven fabric unshrunk cellulose derivative yarns which extend in length by at least 30% when subjected to a finishing treatment in an aqueous medium, said artificial yarns being arranged in stripe formation, along with yarns which extend to a lesser degree when subjected when subjected to a finishing treatment in an aqueous medium, said artificial yarns being arranged in stripe formation in both the Warp and the weit, along with yarns which extend to a lesser degree when subjected to such finishing treatment, and subjecting said fabric to a finishing operation in an aqueous medium by which the extensible yarns are elongated.

6. Closely woven fabric comprising areas containing unshrunk cellulose derivative yarns which extend in length by at least 30% when subjected to a finishing treatment in an aqueous medium, and also comprising yarns which extend to a lesser degree when subjected to such nishing treatment, said fabric having been subjected to a finishing treatment in an aqueous medium by which the extensible yarns are elongated.

7. Closely woven fabric comprising areas containing unshrunk organic derivative of cellulose yarns which extend in length by at least 30% when subjected to a finishing treatment in an aqueous medium, and also` comprising yarns which extend to a lesser degree when subjected to such finishing treatment, said fabric having been subjected to a finishing treatment in an aqueous medium by which the extensible yarns are elongated.

8. Closely Woven fabric comprising areas containing unshrunk cellulose acetate yarns which extend in length by at least 30% when subjected to a finishing treatment in an aqueous medium, and also comprising yarns which extend to a lesser degree when subjected to such finishing treatment, said fabric having been subjected to a finishing treatment in an aqueous medium by which the extensible yarns are elongated.

HENRY DREYFUS. WILLIAM ALEXANDER DICKIE. 

